Two arrested for gang-rape of senior citizen in Bengal; accused to be produced in court today

Kolkata, Oct 2 (IANS) The cops of the Baruipur Police District in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, on Wednesday night, arrested two persons in connection with the gang-rape of a senior citizen at Kultali in the same district.

Both the accused persons will be presented at a district court in South 24 Parganas on Thursday, and the public prosecutor will seek their police custody, said a senior official of Baruipur Police District.

A third individual accused in the case is still absconding, and police have started a full-fledged operation to track him. All the nearby police stations have been alerted about the third absconding accused.

The incident took place after midnight of Tuesday, when the three accused persons reached the residence of the victim, a senior citizen, who is 60-years-old, to steal chicken from the poultry coup attached to the house.

As the woman woke up on hearing the sounds and challenged the thieves, the three accused persons pounced on her and gang-raped her after dragging her into a room in her house.

Later on Wednesday, the cops arrested two of the three accused persons, while the third criminal has somehow managed to remain absconding till the time the report was filed.

According to the statement given by the victim to the local police, she was alone at home on Tuesday night when the accused persons committed the crime against her.

The senior citizen explained that she was alone at her home as her husband was in hospital in connection with an eye surgery. She also said that the three miscreants were carrying a country-made pistol and a sharp weapon, which they threatened her with while committing the crime against her.

West Bengal has been in the national headlines frequently for the last year due to multiple cases of ghastly rapes and murder. In many of the cases, the victims had been minors.

The most talked about case was that of the rape and murder of a lady junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata within the hospital premises in August last year, an event that rocked not only the state but the entire country.

--IANS

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